Morning, December 10
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
1 Thessalonians 4:17
"So shall we ever be with the Lord."
1 Thessalonians 4:17
Even the sweetest visits from Christ, how short they are--and how
transitory! One moment our eyes see him, and we rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory, but again a little time and we do not
see him, for our beloved withdraws himself from us; like a roe or a
young hart he leaps over the mountains of division; he is gone to the
land of spices, and feeds no more among the lilies.
"If today he deigns to bless us
With a sense of pardoned sin,
He to-morrow may distress us,
Make us feel the plague within."
Oh, how sweet the prospect of the time when we shall not behold him at
a distance, but see him face to face: when he shall not be as a
wayfaring man tarrying but for a night, but shall eternally enfold us
in the bosom of his glory. We shall not see him for a little season,
but
"Millions of years our wondering eyes,
Shall o'er our Saviour's beauties rove;
And myriad ages we'll adore,
The wonders of his love."
In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin; no weeping
shall dim our eyes; no earthly business shall distract our happy
thoughts; we shall have nothing to hinder us from gazing forever on the
Sun of Righteousness with unwearied eyes. Oh, if it be so sweet to see
him now and then, how sweet to gaze on that blessed face for aye, and
never have a cloud rolling between, and never have to turn one's eyes
away to look on a world of weariness and woe! Blest day, when wilt thou
dawn? Rise, O unsetting sun! The joys of sense may leave us as soon as
they will, for this shall make glorious amends. If to die is but to
enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus, then death is indeed
gain, and the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory.